Ray
Freeman of Berkeley, CA won the championship with a 6-1 record,
becoming the first player to win three crowns. Ray defeated Bill
Thomson (5-2) of Austin, TX (a veteran gamer making just his
second appearance in the War At Sea event) in the finals.
3rd place went to all-time Avaloncon/WBC plaque leader Bruce
Reiff (5-1) of Lewis Center, OH, who was the only player to win
all five Swiss rounds, while Joe Collinson (4-2) of Friendship,
MD took 4th place in his best finish to date. Before the semi-finals
could begin, Ray, Bill, and Joe had to win a strength of schedule
tiebreaker over last year's Rookie of the Year, John Strand (4-1).
All four had identical won-lost ledgers and 40 victory points
at the completion of five Swiss rounds. Unfortunately for John,
he had the lowest of the four schedule strengths and took home
the 5th place plaque as consolation.

In the semi-finals, Bill Thomson's Allied forces, bidding
2.0, upset Bruce Reiff's Axis flotilla by a mere 1-POC margin.
Meanwhile, Ray Freeman's Allies (bidding 1.0), edged Joe Collinson's
Axis fleet, also by a single POC. Joe may have had the day's
hardest luck when his U-boats torpedoed Convoy 3C in the North
Atlantic, hitting it for one damage point, then bombed the same
convoy with his LBA on Turn 8 in the Barents, scoring a second
hit - for another single damage point. That convoy landed and
provided the margin of victory for the Allies. Ray got the Allies
in the finals for a bid of 1.5 and beat Bill's Axis by 3.5 POC.
In the final, the Axis disabled three convoys in a row, but the
Allies landed one convoy in Russia and another in England on
Turn 8 to turn a narrow lead into a solid victory.

The Gamemaster lucked his way into 6th place, and rounding
out the top10 were Dennis Nicholson, 4-1, (7th), Glenn Petroski,
4-1, (8th), defending champ Andy Gardner, 3-2, (9th), and Rob
Drozd, 3-2, (10th). Rob also won Rookie of the Year honors. After
winning Best Allied Player three times in the past, Ray Freeman
garnered Best Axis Player laurels this year with a 3-0 log. Bruce
Reiff copped Best Allied Player with a 5-0 mark. Bob Jamelli
earned the title of giant killer supreme. Fresh off his recent
PBeM victory over Ray Freeman, Bob defeated AREA leader and current
BPA PBEeM champion Jonathan Lockwood in Round 1, then knocked
off reigning WBC champ Andy Gardner in Round 2!

Upsets
seemed more prevalent than in other years, with half of the top
10 seeds going down in Round 1. For the first time in memory,
only one player was undefeated after four rounds. 47 players
entered this year, the second highest total ever. The 90 total
games played was also the seconnd highest total ever. The tournament
was again conducted using a Swiss-elimination format and chess
clocks, with the Allies having 65 minutes and the Axis 50 minutes.
Clock time expired in only one of the games, and even that was
due to inexperience with the clock rather than slow play.

The Axis and Allies each won exactly half the 90 games; there
were no ties. Bidding was more prevalent than ever, with 57 games
featuring bids for the Allies and one iconoclast bidding for
the Axis. here was no bid in 32 contests. Players seem to be
employing the bidding system to successfully balance the games.
The 45-45 split came after two Allied wins and four ties became
Axis wins when the bid was applied.